Jack spat out the toothpaste into the basin and stumbled back into her room
to get changed into her natty school uniform. Opening her eyes properly she
re-did her tie correctly and tried without success to tame her unruly red
hair into a ponytail. By eight o'clock she was the perfect picture of a
model student. By eight-thirty her mother had dropped her off at the school
gates and she hurriedly half-undid her hair and pulled up her socks. Ready
for school.
She had been fed up with her group lately. All they wanted to do was to talk about boys now. They weren't bad, but seeing as all the boys they knew only knew two words, "whatever" and one other that has to be censored, the topic just went on and on andon nad on noand and... you get the picture. So she went straight to her locker to escape the usual flood of gossip and backstabbing that went on in her group. But to no avail, Jessica (quite an annoying person who followed Jack around like a bad smell) looked up from where she sat and Jack was sprung. Like thunder follows lightning, she and a few others rushed over to Jack's locker and gabbled on about the latest teen drama.
"Oh - My - GOD, Jack, you will never believe this - "
"Shush, I'm telling! Shut UP!" (This was from Meg, a loudmouth who you
liked some days but got sick of quite quickly) "Well, you know how
Kath and Rachel had that HUGE fight, well, Luce just found out that
Rachel did cheat on that test! How can you do that? Kath wanted that
prize so much, and then Rachel - "
"Who is meant to be her friend - "
" - just cheats and wins! Can you believe that?"
Jack struggled with this new information, trying to get her head around this new complication, and then finally gave up. She was sick of dealing with other people's business, she had enough on her plate at the moment. The maths half-yearly was coming up and she really wasn't ready. She'd studied more than her friends, it wasn't very hard to do that, but when she looked at the sheet that her teacher had given her as a study guide, her stomach turned somersaults and she knew that she had so much still to learn! Her friends didn't help much. They weren't interested in getting good grades; their parents could afford to send them to this posh school no matter how badly they did. Their future was already secured for them. Not so for Jack. She had to earn her grades, and she better, or she'd be out of that school so fast she wouldn't be able to pack up books in time. Some people didn't know how lucky they had it.
"Jack? Well?" Megan Mathers impatiently waited for a response.
"Uh... Yeh... that was pretty low... I guess..."
"Huh?"
"Are you feeling sick, Jack?" Jessica watched her idol from anxious eyes.
Yeh, of you guys, Jack thought. Out loud she said, "Mmmmm yeh. I think
I'll just freshen up in the loos."
"I'll come," Jessica said immediately as if it was inevitable.
"NO! Um, I mean, I'll be okay."
Jack practically ran from the little group that was cornering her, suffocating her. She headed instinctively to the toilets - all the paths in her school seemed to lead there anyway. The usual group of loo monkeys from Year 10 all clustered around the mirror, doing up their hair and adjusting their eyeliner. They all stopped and glared at her, a pack of lions angered at someone invading their territory. Jack wasn't intimidated - she had seen or heard of what this herd of cows was capable of, sometimes when you were trying to go to the loo they would start talking about you, how ugly you were etc. One of Jack's closest friends received this treatment daily until she had to finally leave the school. But Jack was a good fighter and could take on a bunch of prissy barbie dolls any day.
Even so, instead of heading straight for the mirror and freshening up, she went into a cubicle and locked the door. Waiting for the customary chatter and gossiping that usually went on after an intruder had vanished, Jack was surprised when the group fell quiet. The silence was complete and solid. Jack felt as if she could reach out and push against it. She heard the squeaky bathroom door close and knew that the girls must have left. But someone was still there. She was sure of it.
The air began to grow stuffy and she was about to go outside and open a window, but something was stopping her. The very air seemed to envelope her and force her to freeze on the spot. She couldn't move, or even breathe. Strange noises began to filter in through the cracks in the cubicle door. Muffled sounds, like a rodent or pig snuffling around in the bushes. Then there was a scuffle and a voice cried out. Something smashed (probably the mirror) and the cubicle next to hers shook as the door slammed. Jack was thoroughly scared out of her wits. It was probably a normal catfight; two girls had pushed each other over the edge. It wasn't all that common, but it did happen...
She had been fed up with her group lately. All they wanted to do was to talk about boys now. They weren't bad, but seeing as all the boys they knew only knew two words, "whatever" and one other that has to be censored, the topic just went on and on andon nad on noand and... you get the picture. So she went straight to her locker to escape the usual flood of gossip and backstabbing that went on in her group. But to no avail, Jessica (quite an annoying person who followed Jack around like a bad smell) looked up from where she sat and Jack was sprung. Like thunder follows lightning, she and a few others rushed over to Jack's locker and gabbled on about the latest teen drama.
"Oh - My - GOD, Jack, you will never believe this - "
"Shush, I'm telling! Shut UP!" (This was from Meg, a loudmouth who you
liked some days but got sick of quite quickly) "Well, you know how
Kath and Rachel had that HUGE fight, well, Luce just found out that
Rachel did cheat on that test! How can you do that? Kath wanted that
prize so much, and then Rachel - "
"Who is meant to be her friend - "
" - just cheats and wins! Can you believe that?"
Jack struggled with this new information, trying to get her head around this new complication, and then finally gave up. She was sick of dealing with other people's business, she had enough on her plate at the moment. The maths half-yearly was coming up and she really wasn't ready. She'd studied more than her friends, it wasn't very hard to do that, but when she looked at the sheet that her teacher had given her as a study guide, her stomach turned somersaults and she knew that she had so much still to learn! Her friends didn't help much. They weren't interested in getting good grades; their parents could afford to send them to this posh school no matter how badly they did. Their future was already secured for them. Not so for Jack. She had to earn her grades, and she better, or she'd be out of that school so fast she wouldn't be able to pack up books in time. Some people didn't know how lucky they had it.
"Jack? Well?" Megan Mathers impatiently waited for a response.
"Uh... Yeh... that was pretty low... I guess..."
"Huh?"
"Are you feeling sick, Jack?" Jessica watched her idol from anxious eyes.
Yeh, of you guys, Jack thought. Out loud she said, "Mmmmm yeh. I think
I'll just freshen up in the loos."
"I'll come," Jessica said immediately as if it was inevitable.
"NO! Um, I mean, I'll be okay."
Jack practically ran from the little group that was cornering her, suffocating her. She headed instinctively to the toilets - all the paths in her school seemed to lead there anyway. The usual group of loo monkeys from Year 10 all clustered around the mirror, doing up their hair and adjusting their eyeliner. They all stopped and glared at her, a pack of lions angered at someone invading their territory. Jack wasn't intimidated - she had seen or heard of what this herd of cows was capable of, sometimes when you were trying to go to the loo they would start talking about you, how ugly you were etc. One of Jack's closest friends received this treatment daily until she had to finally leave the school. But Jack was a good fighter and could take on a bunch of prissy barbie dolls any day.
Even so, instead of heading straight for the mirror and freshening up, she went into a cubicle and locked the door. Waiting for the customary chatter and gossiping that usually went on after an intruder had vanished, Jack was surprised when the group fell quiet. The silence was complete and solid. Jack felt as if she could reach out and push against it. She heard the squeaky bathroom door close and knew that the girls must have left. But someone was still there. She was sure of it.
The air began to grow stuffy and she was about to go outside and open a window, but something was stopping her. The very air seemed to envelope her and force her to freeze on the spot. She couldn't move, or even breathe. Strange noises began to filter in through the cracks in the cubicle door. Muffled sounds, like a rodent or pig snuffling around in the bushes. Then there was a scuffle and a voice cried out. Something smashed (probably the mirror) and the cubicle next to hers shook as the door slammed. Jack was thoroughly scared out of her wits. It was probably a normal catfight; two girls had pushed each other over the edge. It wasn't all that common, but it did happen...